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With help from the University of Pennsylvania and GAPSA,
PSPG was able to run a volunteer booth at the Philly Science Carnival on May 3rd.
The carnival was part of the annual 9-day Philly Science Festival which provides
informal science educational experiences throughout Philadelphia’s many
neighborhoods. The title of the PSPG exhibit was “Who owns your genes?” and
featured activities for children and adults alike to educate visitors about how
genes make us who we are, what we can and cannot learn from personalized
genomics services like 23andMe, and how several biotech companies have
attempted to patent specific genes. Kids learned how genes act as the instructions for building
an organism by drawing alleles for different traits out of a hat and using the
genotype to decide how to put together a “monster.” In so doing, they were
exposed to the basic principles of genetics (dominant vs. recessive alleles,
complete vs. incomplete dominance, and codominance), and th…